The Scientist
by Aa11yah
Summary: A large part of being a hero, to Ellis Howard, is being able to stand up for not only yourself but also those weaker than you. Leaving an active war zone with nothing but the clothes on her back and a small apartment wrought with memories she would do anything to hide from, she is left with no other option but to rebuild her life.
1. 1

At the ripe young age of seventeen, Ellis Howard joined the army. She had watched as men and women left the country, entering war zones in a noble attempt to defend what they knew. It inspired her - she wanted to be strong enough to defend not only herself, but those who were left behind for months at a time. So, with a set jaw and narrowed eyes, she enlisted and consequently sold away her life.

A year later, stronger than ever before and yet still not strong enough, Ellis sat in the back of the shaky truck. She was squashed between an extremely well built man who seemed likely to murder anyone who even breathed in his direction and a girl around her age.

Her back bumped against the coarse fabric behind her, but a nervous grin was on her lips as she turned to her left and smiled at the female, "Hey, I'm Ellis. Ellis Howard."

"Talia Hunter."

Twenty years old and finally back in Manhattan, having gained much more than she had lost, Ellis finally looked across at the boring grey buildings and smiled.

Her left hand, enclosed as it was in that of the man she considered to be her big brother, shook as she stepped onto the concrete. Faces surrounded her, ones she didn't recognise and ones she did - she noted the similarities between the eyes of a woman and a soldier she had fought with every day for just over two years, watched as a pregnant lady wrapped her arms around the neck of her husband and pressed her lips against his the second he approached her.

Watched as a middle aged lady waited for a son who would never return home.

"Home at last, Howard, Hunter, how's it feel?"

"Foreign."

The woman on her other side nodded her agreement, "in an odd way, I kinda miss our little home..."

The man looked down at the two beside him, his tanned face splitting into a wide grin, "yeah, me too...well, there's my ride."  
He pointed to a grey haired man standing beside a teenaged boy, "I guess I'll see you two later."

At only twenty three, she had witnessed so many horrors that she wouldn't wish on even her very worst enemies and yet had also seen so many occurrences that came close to restoring her faith in humanity - almost.

At twenty four, she stepped off the truck, heavy bag on her shoulders and yet not as heavy as her heart. Her steps echoed in her head as she walked solemnly over to her friend's father, noting the additional lines on his face, and brother.  
She could see the dim light in their eyes as they wished with all they had that the man would climb down from the back of the truck, bag in hand and wide smile on his lips. He didn't.

He should blame her, Ellis thought, she had returned home while his son had not. And yet, though tears were in his eyes, his face twisted into a smile that was more of a grimace as he opened his arms for her.

Still young, not even six months after returning home from a war zone with only herself for company, Ellis tucked a chain of cold metal under her shirt and pulled on a long white jacket.

A lanyard hung from her neck, tangling with the two dog tags, attached to a vivid red identity card. Imprinted on the card beside an image of her was the name of her new place of work; Stark Industries.


	2. 2

_Blood covered her trembling hands, hot and dark. She could no longer see where it originated from. That didn't matter anymore, she pressed harder._

_The air, once filled with gunshots, explosions and yells was abnormally silent to the two women._

_"E-El..."_

_A sob racked her body, "no, Tal...keep your strength. Help!"_

_"El...no..look a-at me."_

_Ellis shook her head, keeping her eyes on the wound she was trying to keep pressure on. "It's gonna be okay, Talia...we're gonna get married as-as soon as it's possible...we need a medic!...you're going to wear that beautiful white dress you told me about...what did it look like again?"_

_"White...lace...floor length...pretty..."_

_"Yeah, you're gonna look beautiful, Tal...I can't wait, Love..."_

_The woman on the ground coughed gently, her eyes fluttering a little as she tried to force them to stay open, "I...I love...I love you, Ellis..."_

_Ellis failed to hold back the tears that had long since welled up in her eyes. They dropped down onto her hands, pressed against her fiancée's chest, leaving small spots of clear skin against crimson blood.  
"I love you too, Talia...more than anything. Someone, help!"_

_"'M scared."_

_"I know, Tal...I'll make it okay, I'll make it better...just...just keep them stunning eyes open..."_

_"L've you..."_

"Tal!" Ellis let out a cry as she woke to the empty room, the emptiness heavier than anything she had ever known. She forced herself up, pushing hair away from her face as she stumbled towards the bathroom.

"Morning, Ellis." The receptionist, Harry, smiled.

She gave him a slight grin that didn't quite reach her eyes along with a wave as she scanned her ID badge and entered the elevator.

"Where would you like to go, Dr. Howard?"

"Floor 47, please," Ellis responded to the AI responsible for the SI functions.

"Of course."

Leaving the enclosed space, Ellis gave a sigh of relief that she was the only person on the floor that she could see - that wasn't completely surprising, considering it was 0430.

She entered the lab, and dragged herself towards her area of the room. Nobody was due to be in for over an hour, so she planned on finishing her final report before it had to be sent in for review.

Music blasted through a pair of cheap earphones, the woman's head nodding along occasionally as she focused solely on the notebook and project in front of her. She sat on the ground, leaned against the leg of her work table, her legs crossed comfortably as she screwed on the final metal plate with an accomplished grin.

"Hey, Doc, you been in long?" Joe Denton, an Alpha Lab Technician, had to raise his voice to a shout in order to be heard. He didn't try to touch the distracted woman to gain her attention - it hadn't gone well when Alex had tried that a few months previously.

Ellis pulled the earphones out, leaving them hanging around her neck, "morning, Joe, not too long. Ready for deadlines week?"

The man gave an exaggerated grimace, forcing a laugh from the woman, "no chance. D'you mind checking over my calculations when you have a mo? I'm pretty sure it's all right, but I just can't seem to get the thrust right for the left side of the board. It's heavier, 'cause of the engine, but I'd factored that in and it _still isn't staying level."_

The Lab Director nodded, "sure, I just need to get these performance reviews done, but I shouldn't be too much longer - had an idea and needed to give it a try."

"Mind if I ask what?"

"Not at all...so, you know I'm working on a way to silence a specific area, like an umbrella, right? I thought, it's gonna look more suspicious that there's _no noise at all...so, maybe if I change the noise - morning, Beth - from nothing to a lower frequency that is words, but too jumbled and muffled to be deciphered. Like, a buzzing kind of sound." Her eyes were bright with the glow of a new idea, a satisfied smile on her lips._

"I like that. I _want one when it's all done!"_

The door opened once more, revealing a barely functional Alex Mack, who stumbled through as if in a daze.

"Hey, Al, do I wanna know what you got up to last night?" Bethany gave a quiet laugh.

"I just met the perfect woman on my way in..."

"Alex," Ellis sighed mockingly, "this is the third time this month."

"I'm in _love this time! I'm finally moving on from you!" The two laughed together, ignoring the confused frowns they received from the two Lab Technicians who hadn't worked for Stark Industries as long as they had._

"Anyway," Ellis looked around at her three scientists, "you all know what day it is today."

At their collective nod of confirmation, she continued, "I'm going to be speaking with each of you, as usual, separately. This morning, we'll finish any projects and reports, and then this afternoon, we'll begin the reviews. First, is there anyone that's gonna be leaving early? If so, I'll talk to you first."

Beth raised her hand half way, a slight smile on her lips, "yeah, I forgot to mention yesterday. Sorry. It's my brother's birthday today, so we're going for a meal."

Ellis gave a thumbs up, despite the twisting in her chest - it was Talia's birthday, too. "Great, will...uh, will 1030 be okay for you?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Thank you."

Ellis signed the bottom of each report before rising to her feet and approaching Joe's station, "so, is it just the weight distribution? How noticeable is it?"

The man opened his mouth to explain, raising his hands in an approximation, before sighing, "I'll show you. It's not overly obvious until you get on."

He grabbed the board that he had spent the better part of seven months working on and placed it on the ground, stepping on before kicking a switch beside his right foot.

The board rose steadily, the man on top of it grinning proudly, "its good until it gets a little higher and I start moving, then it feels a little unsteady...I feel like I'm gonna get thrown off, like--"

The board shot to the side, bucking the man off and sending him flying through the glass window.

"-Well, like that."

While Beth ran to grab the board before it could cause any more havoc, Ellis and Alex approached the scientist.

Glass covered his body, shallow cuts on his face. Thin lines of blood streaking across his cheeks smudged when the man raised his hand and felt for any damage.

_"Tommy!"_

_The man laid a few metres away from her, limbs splayed painfully, and he was so obviously not breathing. Blood soaked through his clothes onto the dry grass around him._

"Ellis, I'm gonna go, grab the first aid kit from your office, okay?" Alex shook her gently, the only one who could get away with it.

She nodded slightly, "yeah, I'll check him out."

"Will you, Doc?" Joe winked at her with a teasing smile, "that's good."

The woman rolled her eyes, pulling a small flashlight from the pocket of her lab coat, turning it on and shining it in his eyes without warning, "pupils are reacting right. Follow my finger, To-Joe..."

Sure that he wasn't concussed or otherwise injured except for a few shallow cuts, she helped him to his feet and led him towards his workstation.

Alex placed the open medical bag on the desk, "you know what you're doing, Howard. Beth an' I'll get on with our stuff."

Ellis gave him a thankful smile, "does anywhere hurt other than your face and back?"

The man carefully took stock of any unusual aches or pains before giving the negative answer.

"Perfect. I'll just clean up these cuts, then send you off to medical for a better check, alright?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Alex looked up from the board he was jotting an equation onto, "hey, Joe, that was a _smashing explanation of what's wrong with your board!"_

Ellis and Beth rolled their eyes and shook their heads while the two men chuckled.

"It's just the calibration, I think," Beth brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she spoke, "did you do that after changing the power on the left?"

"_Shit!"_

Joe flinched as Ellis dabbed at a deeper cut on the palm of his hand, "it's just a cut, Doc, you're overreacting. I'm fine."

Ignoring the comment, Ellis looked up at him, "Alex, d'you mind taking Mr. Macho, here, to Medical?"

The man grinned, placing the marker on the table, "it would be my genuine pleasure, El."

Ellis looked up at the other occupant of the lab, "well, seeing as the morning's been cleared up, do you want to do your review a bit early?"


End file.
